Vested interest in Chinese politics

Open roundtable event on 'vested interests' in Chinese politics with Professor Yu Zheng, Fudan University and Professor Jørgen Delman, University of Copenhagen. 

Professor Yu Zheng's presentation: Privatization with Vested Interests in China
Why has China experienced a peculiar process of partial privatization—rapidly diminishing state ownership without weakening state control? We argue that SOE managers and local bureaucrats have contingent, rather than vested, interests in economic reforms. Using multilevel datasets, we find that political connections have significant but opposite effects on privatization at the firm and provincial levels. Political connections encourage SOE managers to push for rapid sale of state ownership but discourage local politicians to pursue aggressive privatization schemes.

Yu Zheng's bio
Yu Zheng is a Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA), Fudan University. He received a Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego and has taught at the University of Connecticut. His research interests include international development, foreign direct investment, and business-government relations. He is the author of Governance and Foreign Investment in China, India, and Taiwan: Credibility, Flexibility, and International Business (University of Michigan Press, 2014). His publications have also appeared in journals such as Comparative Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Studies in Comparative International Development, and others. He also received a postdoctoral fellowship at the Princeton Harvard China and the World Program.

Format
15min opening by Jørgen Delman: "Vested interests and political dynamics in China" followed by Yu Zheng's presentation (30-45min). Remaining time will be used for Q&A.

Refreshments will be served.

Registration
The roundtable is open to the public and free of charge.

Registration is closed.